Head gasket pics

[alia176]

Spent my xmas eve on removing the head gasket on the wife's 80. She had a coolant leak on the #6 cyl as evidenced by a misfire condition. There is evidence of a greenish gunk in the radiator and in the overflow tank.

Some observations I made:

-#6 piston is way more gunked up than the rest. Evidence of incomplete combustion?
-Some of the coolant passage ways are nearly blocked from a bad coolant mixture.
-I'm unable to tell where the leak is exactly on the head gasket!
-almost all valve stem seals are leaking oil on the exhaust side and some on the intake side (if you look through the exhaust ports)
-found crusty stuff on a passage way on the side of the head.
-all spark plugs aren't indexed the same. The electrodes are pointed in different directions.

1st picture shows the combustion chambers on the head and the PHH nipple on the top right of the picture. Larger valves are the intake valves on top.
2nd pic shows #6 and #5 pistons and the head gasket. Notice the clogged coolant passageways!
3rd pic all pistons with head gasket

I have some more pics at http://s127.photobucket.com/albums/...iser headgasket and engine rebuild/?start=all

Vehicle stats:
'97 40th with 125k miles. I'm the third owner since August '06.

Merry Xmas to all!

Ali

 

[OGBeno]

So, what's your plan of attack on this Ali?

Great pics, by the way.

 

[NaterGator]

Nice pics... are you planning on attacking down even lower and doing anything to the cylinders?

 

[Tentsontop]

That does not look good.

 

[alia176]

So, what's your plan of attack on this Ali?

Great pics, by the way.

The usual:
-mill the head, valve job, check for crack, true, etc
-radiator cleaned out or replaced. Not sure yet
-injectors cleaned, flowed, calibrated, etc
-usual hoses, belts, PHH, etc
-clean, clean, clean, clean the intake and all around
-change the fuel filter
-wrap the harness with header tape or similar
-clean and clean some more!
-all new gaskets and O rings
-clean some more!!!

Ali

 

[alia176]

Nice pics... are you planning on attacking down even lower and doing anything to the cylinders?

I wasn't planning on it. The vehicle has excellent power and exhibited no signs of bottom end failures or knocking sounds of any kind. The bottom end is bullet proof anyway!

 

[turbocruiser]

Glad you got it going before a completely catastrophic failure, very smart, here I'll give you a sweet sight to look forward to ...

 

[OGBeno]

Now that's clean...

What a beautiful bottom end the 1FZ has....

 

[alia176]

Glad you got it going before a completely catastrophic failure, very smart, here I'll give you a sweet sight to look forward to ...

So THAT'S what they're suppose to look like I better get more rags....!!

 

[landtank]

you can see the typical deformity in the middle picture at 8:00 o'clock.

That's where they usually breach the water jacket if it's internal.

 

[medtro]

The usual:
-mill the head, valve job, check for crack, true, etc
-radiator cleaned out or replaced. Not sure yet
-injectors cleaned, flowed, calibrated, etc
-usual hoses, belts, PHH, etc
-clean, clean, clean, clean the intake and all around
-change the fuel filter
-wrap the harness with header tape or similar
-clean and clean some more!
-all new gaskets and O rings
-clean some more!!!

Ali

Very busy Christmas day for you.

 

[turbocruiser]

Now that's clean...

What a beautiful bottom end the 1FZ has....

Blushing ... "Why thank you!"

So THAT'S what they're suppose to look like I better get more rags....!!

Yea, between the time that Robbie tore it down and the time that he returned to rebuild I took some time and really rubbed it all amazingly clean. I'll never forget the look on his face when he was seeing these results for the first time, it was sort of some cross between "Wow" and "Ohh s***, This Dude Is Incredibly Psycho"

 

[e9999]

what's with the coolant gunk? looks pretty thick. red + green mix?

 

[LandCruiserPhil]

Blushing ... "Why thank you!"





Yea, between the time that Robbie tore it down and the time that he returned to rebuild I took some time and really rubbed it all amazingly clean. I'll never forget the look on his face when he was seeing these results for the first time, it was sort of some cross between "Wow" and "Ohh s***, This Dude Is Incredibly Psycho"

I need to ask - what did you use to get it that clean?

 

[p8nt]

I have a feeling this is in my future. Anyone ever have any problems breaking loose the exaust manifold bolts. Every pic I see they all look really rusty.

 

[Cruiser Jimmy]

Merry Christmas

Good to see that you took action with the signs given.
Now don't get grease and coolant all over the gifts.

Tell Robbie I said "Hi" and that the beer funnel is working great.

 

[powderpig]

Is the engine back together yet Jklubens? Hopefully you are using the beer funnel for what it ment for.
As for cleaning the tops of the pistons and the cylinder wall of the carbon and the top of the block. i use the 3m scotch brite pads on a air die grinder. NOTE: BE VERY CARE FULL WITH THE VERY COURSE ONE, IT CAN WEAR DOWN THE BLOCK VERY FAST. On the top of the pistons i use a wire brush(soft one) to break up the carbon. On the cylinder walls I use scotch brite pads and scrape it with a a small screw driver to brake up the carbon. I use cylinder plugs made of thick paper board(like a ups folder mailer). I peen out a plug to catch the partical for the other cylinders(6 plugs ) I usually work on the two cylinder that are at the top of the stoke at one time. I use a vaccuum to suck what I can and air to blow the rest way. The stuff that is stuck down the cylinder wall and piston can be pulled out with oil on the cylinder walls, the rotate the pistons up and down (mind the timing chain while moving the pistons up and down). When cleaning the top of the block, mind getting stuff down the open timing chain area and the oil galley.
these are techniques I have used for well over 28 years to clean out cylinders.
If done properly it return the combustion chamber to near new conditions and gives the engine a great boost. It is a must for supercharging and or turbo charging(IMHO). As it gets rid of the carbon that can create hot spots that can lead to predetanation and piston melting.
Any how it can be a time consuming process, the resluts are nice.

Happy Holidays every one. Just waiting for the kids to get out of bed. Robbie

 

[locrwln1]

Hey Ali,

As we were discussing on the phone yesterday, mine looked exactly like yours when I took it apart. I expected the #6 to be cleaner due to the leak, instead it was dirtier like yours. And yeah the cleaning parts sucks, but what else are you going to do while the head is getting machined?

The urge to clean everything was strong and I don't think you will be able to resist it either. Especially once you get the head back and you see how clean it is. You just can't put a clean head on a dirty block. Start scrubbing beotch.

Have fun.

Jack

 

[landtank]

I've read that using a scotch brite on the mating surfaces of the head and block is not recommended. These surfaces need to be as smooth as possible to allow for the different expansion of the materials. The concern was that the moving of the head on the block would tear up the gasket.

So while Robbie has great luck with this just remember it might be hard to imitate his procedure from what you have read here to avoid problems. Just be careful with it.

 

[alia176]

After cleaning the block and the intake manifolds, I'm going to have a hard time with the oem PCV system. It'd be a shame to dump the PCV gas back into the engine again after all that effort! Maybe it's time for an oil catch can?

I'll get to cleaning now that y'all have such a high standard set for me!

Robbie, thanks for the cleaning info and the cautions. Much appreciated.

Ali